Negative air ions (NAI) is an important indicator of air cleanliness. The contribution to total NAI in urban green space by different sources has not yet been reported both at home and abroad. In order to better understand the mechanism on formation of NAI in urban area, the static chamber method was used to conduct dynamic observation on NAI from different sources (plant, soil, atmospheric background and external source) of the typical urban lawn (Zoysia matrella) , and the synchronous data of the meteorological station were collected. The concentrations of NAI, contributions by different sources and the influencing factors were analyzed. The diurnal variations of NAI from different sources varied. The daily average concentration of NAI in the static chamber with plants was 1 478 ions/cm3, with a peak of 2 522 ions/cm3. The daily average concentrations of NAI derived from plant, soil and atmospheric background were 1389, 101 and 98 ions/cm3, accounting for 83.5% , 8.3% and 8.2%, respectively. The average NAI concentration outside the static chamber could only reach 26.2% of the level inside the chamber, with a daily mean concentration of 296 ions/cm3. Both of NAI from plant and from atmospheric background have positive correlation with temperature, but have no significant correlation with relative humidity, aerosols and major atmospheric pollutants. While NAI derived from soil has significant negative correlation with air temperature and positive correlation with all major atmospheric pollutants, no significant correlation with humidity was found. There was no significant correlation between exogenous NAI and the above factors. Our result indicated that plants are the main contributors to NAI in urban lawn, while the contributions by soil and atmospheric background to NAI are relatively low. The influences of environmental factors on NAI of various sources differ. Temperature and humidity are the main influencing factors, while the major atmospheric pollutants have significant effects only on NAI from soil.